# Buddy, Friend, Confidant **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 8, 2025, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-friend-confidant/1019321 "2025-06-08T04:42:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-friend-confidant/1019321/21 "2025-06-08T20:21:34Z")
I don’t know about the rest of you, but “pal” was an extremely nasty acronym when I was in grammar school. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-friend-confidant/1019321/22 "2025-06-08T20:51:46Z")
Never hear of “pal” as an acronym. Not in elementary school, not now as a geezer. And nowhere in between. Care to (delicately) enlighten the rest of us? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-friend-confidant/1019321/23 "2025-06-08T20:53:45Z")
“What’s your problem, Pal?” generally precedes fisticuffs. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-friend-confidant/1019321/24 "2025-06-08T20:54:23Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > I don’t know about the rest of you, but “pal” was an extremely nasty acronym when I was in grammar school. Whereas, when I was in grade school, it was “buddy” that had a sophomoric, homophobic connotation: “Friends are friends, and pals are pals, but buddies sleep together.” ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-friend-confidant/1019321/25 "2025-06-08T22:43:35Z")
“PAL” stood for Personal A\*\* Licker and it spread like wildfire through our school. Fortunately, I don’t remember it following us to junior high. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2025, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-friend-confidant/1019321/26 "2025-06-09T00:35:34Z")
We called our son “buddy” so many times, his cousin thought that was his name. Y’all are missing the new one, “fam.” As in, “I got you, fam.” Which is probably already passe, but I still use it sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2025, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-friend-confidant/1019321/27 "2025-06-09T13:13:53Z")
Interesting. Totally not something that made the jump from your school to mine. Which sorta surprises me. Even in Ye Olde Darke Ages before the WWW, it seems the scruffier aspects of kid culture were surprisingly uniform across the country. Everybody knew the same dirty limericks, standard teases, etc. Or so it seems. ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2025, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-friend-confidant/1019321/28 "2025-06-09T13:21:38Z")
Spell “I CUP” ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2025, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-friend-confidant/1019321/29 "2025-06-09T13:48:46Z")
They pulled that on Marge Simpson when she was buying Bart some sports equipment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buddy-friend-confidant/1019321.md?page=1)